The achievement was greeted with a wave of excitement — as well as calls for patience. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo U.S. scientists have scored
U.S. scientists have scored a breakthrough in fusion technology, showing for the first time that humans can wield the technology to combine atoms to create a net increase in energy, a major breakthrough that could eventually lead to a new source of clean, inexpensive power, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said Tuesday.
“It’s the first time it’s ever been done at a laboratory. Simply put, this is one of the most impressive scientific feats in the 21st century,” Granholm said in a capacity-filled auditorium at the Department of Energy’s headquarters in Washington. “Today we tell the world that America has achieved a tremendous scientific breakthrough.”
The achievement at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory employed lasers to produce a fusion reaction that generated more energy than was needed to create it for just a tiny fraction of a second. But that was enough to prove for the first time that it was possible to mash together atoms and release a greater amount of energy than was used to trigger the reaction.
www.politico.com